Brighton Fringe 2025
Delightfully Dark
Victor Von Plume
Genre: Cabaret, Character Stand up, Theatre
Venue: The Lantern Theatre
Festival: Brighton Fringe
Low Down
Prepare for an engaging, comical and thought provoking experience surrounding the concept of death
Review
Delightfully Dark is a thought provoking, laugh out loud performance blending cabaret, stand up and theatre.
Through song and audience participation, Victor Von Plume portrayed by Sam Clarke takes us on a camp, humorous journey through death. The amusing facts including materials that cannot be worn during cremation to the Darwin awards add a twist that enable us to challenge our preconceived ideas around death.
Clarke is a force to be reckoned with. The depth and presence he has created within Victor Von Plume makes the performance enjoyable, and even when small slips such as a costume mishap, a dry during a gag and a missed lighting due occur Clarke handles these swiftly and with professionalism which enables the audience to remain constantly on his side.
Clarke’s training in musical theatre was obvious – he maintained good pitch during the songs, which were sung at a volume we could hear, and he played the piano effectively, while maintaining the character Victor Von Plume.
Around half of the performance is filled with light hearted comedy. However we then get a revelation. This changes the entire dynamic of the performance, adding depth and power to the message. Equally, this segment of the performance enables us to form a deeper ” bond” with Von Plume, and supporting us to sympathise.
Although overall the performance was enjoyable and successful, there were times when the pace slowed down. In order for this performance to be further strengthened and developed, the pace needs to be consistent. I wondered if to rectify this another song could be included. Equally, in the section using cards, to improve the performance further the size of them could be significantly increased so that the audience could see them, or perhaps bring the action forward to improve visual accessibility.
in conclusion, this was a well rounded, entertaining and engaging performance. The use of song and jokes effectively made us re evaluate our views on death. What presented as being a potentially sad topic was in fact a very positive, life affirming performance and one which can easily be recommended.
